Action to limit climate change recommended

May 05, 2007|By Laurie Goering, Chicago Tribune

BANGKOK, Thailand - The United Nations Panel on Climate Change, which up to now has laid out doomsday global-warming scenarios, had some good news Friday: Climate change can be limited, and at a reasonable price. Just as important, existing technology will do most of the job, as long as policy makers make sure it is quickly adopted. And average citizens can make valuable contributions by making small lifestyle changes without waiting for governments to act. But skeptics, including the Bush administration, said that the most stringent recommended measures could strain the world economy. And others doubted that the worst polluting nations would have much incentive to cooperate. The panel's latest report, released Friday in Bangkok, “addresses a fundamental concern of Americans: Can we do something about this?” said Peter Altman, a climate expert at the National Environmental Trust. “The answer is a resounding yes.” By rapidly ramping up the use of renewable-energy sources like solar, wind and hydroelectric power, making cars, homes and factories more energy efficient, producing electricity with natural gas rather than coal and sequestering carbon dioxide below ground, the world could hold temperature increases to around 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, low enough to avoid potentially disastrous droughts, severe storms and sea level rise, the report's summary said. Just as important, dramatically cutting greenhouse gas emissions to levels scientists believe would stem increases in warming would cost nations at most 0.12 percent of economic growth each year through 2030, scientists said. “The bottom line is: All it takes to beat this problem is the political will to put the solutions in hand to work and to invest in clean energy solutions for the future,” Altman said. “To do this at about a tenth of a percent of GDP per year is a very low cost investment for something with tremendous payoff.”